Dark Father
by Dark-Eyed-Junco
Summary: In an alternate timeline, Leia was reclaimed by her father early, and hidden on Mustafar out of sight of the Emperor, the Inquisitorius, and anyone else, loyal to the Empire or no. But when Vader took her, he took R2-D2 as well, and the droid has taken it upon himself to protect Leia-even from her father.


Mustafar was not a place for children.

Truthfully, it was not a place for anyone, but the small, formative lungs of a child made it especially toxic. For that reason, Leia couldn't go outside without a breather, and even then she went out once or twice a planetary cycle. She always left under supervision as well.

It didn't matter, as the castle built atop the foundation of millennia of dried lava was so large she still hadn't seen every level inside the structure; indeed, she'd not seen even all of her own, though she'd lived there for five years. Some rooms she was forbidden from entering, and had been locked with special security codes.

She mentally reviewed the list of accessible places in her head. _He_ was coming; she couldn't hear his breather or his footsteps yet, though. Fortunately for her, he'd not broken into a run after her, which had provided her with a head start. How he could always walk at such a steady pace after she burst ahead in a sprint, yet appear from around a corner or a column in front of her when she least expected him, was endlessly frustrating. In fact, it was like magic.

Sometimes, though, he just walked doggedly behind her, like a nexu pacing itself, until she was eventually overtaken. That seemed to be his strategy this time.

Breath gushing, side stitching, Leia found a particularly dark corner and sank into its shadowy recess. She forced her body to regulate; panting was a giveaway. He had enhanced hearing, thanks to whatever had been installed in his helmet, and always heard her unless she made especially sure to monitor every movement, every inhalation and exhalation. Sometimes she was successful; for a while. It was impossible to be perfectly silent, especially in a fortress with durasteel floors and vaulted ceilings.

Leia sank to her hands and knees and crawled on, staying close to the wall. Crawling made less noise, and keeping low to the floor reduced visibility. Hopefully, she wouldn't wear out her dress. It was dark blue, her favorite color.

A small medical wing was ahead, and beyond that a workroom. Both had lots of equipment and tables to use for hiding. The medical rooms were closer, but she didn't want to risk knocking over something important, or accidentally switching on a noisy device. She crawled purposely for the workroom. And still didn't hear any breathing, which meant she had some time on her side.

Going on all fours took longer for her to reach her destination, but once inside there were lots of options: half-constructed (or half-deconstructed) droids to hide behind, thick durasteel tables to crawl beneath, and big metal crates, some of them empty. Leia assessed everything. She had to think like him. What would he expect her to do?

That was her weakness: thinking too much. She still stood in the doorway when an abrupt burst of mechanized breathing broke her carefully maintained silence. Leia spun around as the looming black shape of her father blocked out everything else. She had no time to pull away before he reached down and lifted her off her feet.

"That's not fair!" She twisted and kicked, but fighting him was like fighting a statue. His hands tightened around her, as strong as those of a battle droid.

"You barely lasted ten minutes," he said, ignoring her assertion. To her annoyance, he released one hand's grip on her and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

In response she huffed, and gripped his forearm. "I couldn't _hear_ you," she said. "Why!" His respirator was no different than his physical presence. If she didn't hear it, he wasn't supposed to be around. "You _cheated_!"

"So?" Apparently he was not moved by her reasoning. He pulled free his captured arm as she protested the validity of his win. He started to reply, but paused; his head tilted slightly to the side.

Salvation? If he was getting an alert from one of his subservients, he might have to let her go. Losing was always worse because he often made her meditate on it for what felt like hours. Sometimes he meditated with her to make sure she did it properly. ( _Why did you get caught? Why didn't you access the Force? Close your eyes. Where am I right now_?) It was unbearable.

Pulling Leia against his chest with one arm, Father abruptly turned in the doorframe and left the workroom. Leia heard him mutter something inside his helm; what, she couldn't decipher.

"How, Father?" Despite his new distraction and her reprieve, she wasn't going to let the matter go. "How did you sneak up on me?"

He finished whatever he was saying and looked down at her. "Can't you guess?"

"No..." She gripped his tunic. "Tell me! Please?"

"If you guess correctly, I will tell you."

"Did you use the Force?" she tried.

"No."

"Did you...hold your breath?"

"No." He sounded disappointed. "Don't overthink it, my daughter. The answer should be obvious."

Leia still had no idea. So she switched subjects, leaning against him; usually she just walked. "Where are we going?" she asked.

" _You_ are confined to your quarters. I've some surprise guests to deal with." He sounded disappointed about that, too. But disappointed in the way that always made her nervous. Annoyance vibrated around him like an aura. She could detect it even though her connection to the Force was weak. It reminded her of a thundercloud.

"Oh," she said simply. There wasn't any point asking about who was here or why he wasn't happy to receive them. He never revealed those things to her.

C-3PO wasn't present when her father set her down in her quarters. Without another word, Father left her with only R2 to keep her company. R2-D2 twittered happily as he rolled up to her. Leia pet his dome; even after a small growth spurt she still had to reach up to do so. Everybody was taller than her, except for the modified IT-0, but it always hovered and rarely got below her height. Once her father remarked that she might be too short for a Jawa.

"Do you know who's here?' Leia asked R2 as he twittered away. "Father said some guests just showed up. He didn't sound happy about it."

R2 responded with a negative staccato of beeps. Then he offered: 'I could investigate, if you want.'

"No! If he sees you, you'll get in trouble."

Leia didn't know why, but her father kept a very close eye on R2-D2. Something about astromechs needing to "stay on a short leash." He'd placed R2 under a restraining bolt more than once, for going where he wasn't allowed or telling Leia certain things. Those things hadn't even sounded bad to her (just that R2 had served with her father in the Clone Wars, and that they'd gone on many adventures together; fun-sounding ones, too, if R2's storytelling was anything to go by) but it had incensed Father and she'd really been worried he was going to kill R2 that time. Father had done it before to an unfortunate droid that had broken some unspoken rule; he'd used the Force to crush it like a metal can, and left it to be cleaned up by another service droid.

R2 slyly twittered an alternative: 'Let me send IT-0.'

Leia gasped happily. Maybe her father was right about astromechs, because R2 was a genius. "Okay!"

Father would never suspect anything that way. IT-0 was always floating around seemingly at random, keeping watch on some schedule only it understood. Being a droid modified from something unrelated to its new function (even R2 was vague about its original purpose) IT wasn't the friendliest, but took its charge from Lord Vader to guard his daughter very seriously, which in its mind included frequent scans of the castle. There would be nothing out of place if IT-0 hovered in an adjacent room to that of Vader and his mystery guests.

R2 comm'd IT and they held a private discussion for several seconds while Leia waited in anxious anticipation. Then R2 relayed their conversation back to her.

He'd begun by saying, 'Our Master has some surprise guests and he isn't happy about it. Mistress Leia is concerned. Do you know anything?'

'No.'

'She is distressed about it,' R2 repeated. 'And Master seemed agitated as well.'

Finally: '...Then I shall conduct a brief scan, if it will put the Mistress' mind at ease.'

R2 was proud of himself, but Leia lightly hit his chassis and said, "You overdid it. You never call me Mistress!" And he never called Father "Master," either.

'I wanted to activate his deep loyalty programming,' R2 said. 'To make him more compliant.'

"Oh." Leia sat on the floor in front of R2. "What do we do while we wait?"

Apparently R2 wanted to test all boundaries today. 'Do you want a story about the Clone Wars?' he asked, somehow managing to sound coy.

"R2, no! He'll-"

"I never said it was about him."

Leia regarded him doubtfully. "Then who is it about?"

'...My old Master.'

" _Who_?"

R2 wisely kept silent.

Leia didn't want to let him put himself in trouble-but she also really wanted to know what story he'd been sitting on since last time. And of course, it sounded like he was going to carefully reassign a few things...Father's explicit involvement, for one.

 _I wonder why Father was his Master then, but not now._ Leia wouldn't ask, though. She liked R2 and didn't want him thrown out of the castle or something, or put under a restraining bolt again. R2 didn't like it at all, and things got lonelier with him unable to interact with her. Once, Father had gone away for months on a military campaign, but he'd left R2 still restrained. She'd been miserable. C-3PO wasn't capable of fulfilling both roles.

'This is a story about an astromech and his Master during the Clone Wars,' R2 started. Leia listened raptly. She wanted to devote each word to memory, since this might be the only time he'd get to relate it to her. Normally, she'd be completely on edge, but with Father distracted…

'On one of their missions,' R2 continued, 'the astromech got captured by an evil cyborg named General Grievous…'

~.~.~

It was well after Leia had gone to sleep that R2-D2 left the room. He'd stretched out the story as long as possible, and had also insisted Leia eat after it was over-by then, it was evening, at least according to Coruscant time. As he'd hoped, she was tired, first from training-playing, she'd say-with her Father, and then from the epic tale he'd carefully spun. She wanted to stay up, but he'd suggested she go to bed, because 'Lord Vader may not be done with his guests yet. Let's not distract IT-0 from his mission."

"Will you tell me first thing in the morning?" she'd asked.

'I'll wake you up with the news.'

He'd chittered idly with her, keeping her distracted while she prepared for bed. And he made sure she was in the REM stage before he contacted IT-0.

'Was everything all right with the Master?' he asked.

'No problems,' reported IT-0.

'The guests weren't any trouble?'

'No. Just Inquisitors.'

'...I understand. Are they gone now?'

'Only one,' IT-0 said.

'The other is still in the castle?'

'In a manner of speaking.' IT-0 replied. 'The Master killed the second Inquisitor after disciplining them both.'

'Oh.' R2 would have to choose his next words carefully. 'That is not something Mistress Leia should be concerned with, then. I will tell her there were no problems.'

'Yes. No problems," IT-0 confirmed.

'R2 out.'

So Lord Vader was not above executing members of the Inquisitorius. R2 couldn't imagine what the Brother or Sister had done, but he knew it only had to happen once to rouse Lord Vader's ire sufficiently. Apparently the one allowed to leave hadn't managed to anger him quite as much.

It didn't really matter what happened to Jedi killers, in his mind, but the information was priceless. His next task: find Lord Vader's location and keep track of it. R2 needed to know where his former Master was at all times, because as soon as he had the opportunity, he had to find the holographic footage of the Inquisitor's death.

[TBC]


End file.
